Sunday, February 8, 2015

A matter of choice

As parents know all too well, children function differently
from adults. They do have a logic to their
choices, just not the same as their elders.
One of the ways children worldwide pick among similar options is by
means of a song. The actual words vary
from country to country, but the idea is that the last syllable falls on the selected
choice.

For example,
in most English speaking countries, the selection song, with some local
variations, goes like this.
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

Catch a
tiger by the toe

If it
hollers, let it go

Eeny, meeny,
miny, moe.

The animal
and punishment varies, including go to jail in the Welsh version. Of course, children have additional verses to
string out the process and add tension.

The Hebrew
version consists of a chorus and seemingly endless verses. The chorus is as follows:

Enden dino,
sof al hakatino

Sof al haki
kato

Elik belik
bom

Unlike the
English version, there is no clear meaning, as least to the non-scholar, to the
words of the chorus.

The French
picking process turns out, rather surprising, to be mispronounced German:

Am, stram, gram

Pic et pic et colégram

Bour et bour et ratatam

Am, stram, gram

The meaning,
unknown to the children no doubt, is the following: one, two three, steal,
steal, maybug, run, run horseman, one two three. As they say in jazz, it is the rhythm that
counts, not the words.

On the gold porch sat / Tzar, Tzarivich, prince, and young
prince / shoemaker, tailor / Who are to be such? / Speak faster / Go ahead / of
the good and kind people [Better translations are welcome]

The Russian version has clearly much more content.

So, if you have the privilege of hearing a child making a
hard decision, listen to the rhythm of words and see if you can guess who or
what will be picked. You have to admit
that the song method is much more entertaining than the adult version of flipping a coin.